Welcome back.
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Fun fact: I helped a company hit a $1B valuation using OneUI components. Yes, an off-the-shelf UI kit.

And they’re not the only ones. Plenty of today's most successful products are built on frameworks like Tailwind, Radix, and Shadcn, or specialized libraries like Tremor.

Yet some designers suggest that's a discredit.

Spoiler: it's not.

In 2025, UI kits have evolved to solve real, hard problems at any scale - from weekend projects to billion-dollar products.

UI kits have gotten rad, and I'm gonna show you why.

—Tommy (@designertom)

the wireframe

• The UI kit paradox
• The evolution of popular UI kits
• The modern stack

the UI kit paradox

UI kits are both the most-used and most-criticized tools in the design world.

Detractors say it “isn’t real design.”

Meanwhile, success stories are everywhere:

• NinjaOne hit a $1B valuation built on OneUI and we extended it as complexity grew
• Vercel just acquired Tremor, a charting library that takes the pain out of data viz.
• Every major tech company has its own design system library at scale.

Hard to argue with that.

the evolution of UI kits

We’ve come a long way since Bootstrap. Let’s take a quick look at the waves:

Wave 1: CSS Frameworks (2011-2015)

1. Bootstrap & Foundation ruled.
2. Everyone’s site looked the same, but it worked.
3. MVPs shipped in weeks, not months.

Wave 2: Design System Era (2016-2020)

1. Material Design and Figma UI kits took over.
2. Design tokens and brand guidelines got serious.
3. Customization was possible but often complex.
4. Rise of tools like Storybook and Invision DSM (rip)

Wave 3: The Component Revolution (2021-2024)

1. Tailwind introduced utility-first CSS.
2. Radix and Shadcn offered accessible, headless components.
3. Everyone realized that behavior matters as much as visuals.

Wave 4: AI-Enhanced Present (2025)

1. Smart frameworks like React and next-gen tools like v0, Lovable, and Cursor.
2. AI-assisted customization is emerging.
3. Framework convergence: we’re still figuring out where it goes next.

Not just HTML / CSS

Figma kits show you how a dropdown looks with some layer of behavior. A React component handles how it opens/closes, manages focus states, and ensures accessibility.

And designers can download companion kits like the shadcn Figma UI kit and design with compartmentalized components that their engineers can produce in full fidelity.

In some cases, tools like Framer have component kits that you can adopt and are production-ready.

Not a new concept. But today, it's much better.

Together with Framer​

Designing a Website 🤝🏻 Building a Website

If you’re a designer tasked to create and publish visually stunning websites, there’s a tool for that. If you want to boost creativity while speeding up the overall web development process, you need Framer—no coding required.

The next best no-code website builder for designers, Framer:

• Feels and works like Figma and other design tools you know
• Lets you publish your design as a real website in seconds
• Supports breakpoints, animations, and even a whole CMS

Plus, you can even import designs from Figma using our Figma-to-Framer plugin so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Are you ready to learn how Framer can streamline your web development process?

Learn more now

the modern stack: what i'm using in 2025

Right now, my projects Madeby and the new UX Tools redesign are using Tailwind CSS plus Shadcn UI.

Here’s why:

• Tailwind: It’s won me over with utility classes and an enormous ecosystem. Feels minimal but insanely flexible.
• Shadcn UI: Copy-paste components (built on top of Tailwind) that handle complex logic, from modals to tabs. Fully customizable and beautiful.
• Radix: A solid fallback whenever I need highly composable, accessible primitives.

I’ll also reach for specialized libraries like Recharts for charts or FontAwesome for icons.

Each piece lifts the burden of building from scratch and I'm still able to customize on a wide scale.

UI kits raise the floor on bad design

They give you a “good enough” baseline that’s often more than enough to compete in the market, especially if the rest of your product equation is on point.

education spotlight

UI Engineering 101 for Designers

Maven just rolled out The Future of Design 2025, a series designed to help us level up on the skills that matter now.

One course I’m eyeing is UI Engineering 101 for Designers by Derek Briggs and Mariana Castilho (Derek has a great convo with Ridd on Dive Club).

This course is a crash course in HTML, CSS, and Tailwind so you can bridge the gap between design and engineering.

​Get $100 off with promo code "TOMMY".

my rules for using UI kits

This is how I pick and use pre-built interface components:

Start with existing components

1. Don’t reinvent toggles and modals - life’s too short.
2. Focus on product first, styling later.

Pick stuff that has a track record

1. Look for strong accessibility support.
2. Active community, regular updates, good docs.

Plan escape routes

1. Keep styling modular.
2. Document overrides or brand-specific changes

Think in systems

1. UI kits aren’t just components; they’re process.
2. Roadmap your scaling needs early.

the bottom line

UI kits aren’t worth any discredit in 2025.

Just like React isn’t “cheating” at JavaScript, a pre-built design system isn’t “cheating” at UX.

They raise the floor so you can aim higher.

What about you? Which UI kits or frameworks are you betting on in 2025? Hit reply and let me know.

See you next week,

Tommy

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